Azu's Akatsuki Tale, Chapter 12
by KorinaK
Summary: A lot of trouble, and a load of favors are in this chapter.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters… etc, etc. If I did, then the Akatsuki would be more of a big player in the story!

This is one of the stranger chapters in this story… if you think about it, I don't think life would _ever_ turn out to be just like that. But hey, who knows, right? Maybe it's just Azu's luck. Anyways, here's the chapter!

Azu's Akatsuki Tale, Chapter 12: A Favor For a Favor

"Um… Sasori-san…"

He stared at me impatiently. "What?"

My cowardly mouth betrayed me, as I asked, "Where were you just a while ago? Everyone was missing…"

"Leader-sama called a meeting," he said tonelessly.

Mentally strengthening myself, I burst out, "Sasori-san, I'm really sorry, but I accidentally broke my hand and I can't copy your puppet scrolls for at least a week, and, and…I'm-so-sorry!!!" I flung my head down in to a bow, not daring to look at him until he spoke.

After what seemed like several centuries worth of pause, he said, "What a disappointment." I winced at his voice. If it was cold before, now it was positively freezing. Blasting like a blizzard, in fact. He sighed. "And I thought as my protégé, you knew better…"

I kept my head down as he said, "Well, I need them done by tomorrow morning 6:00 a.m. sharp. I have a _big_ battle coming up." Another long pause later, he continued, "I guess I'll do them _myself…_"

Let me stop at this point to explain that as much as I hate that old geezer, the guilt I was feeling now was overwhelming. I practically shouted, "It's okay Sasori-san! I'll, um, help you get them done, it, um, I mean you don't have to copy them yourself!"

I could feel his glare as he said, "Get it done…" That left me to contemplate what would happen if I didn't get it done. His footsteps echoed away slowly down the hall.

I bundled all twelve scrolls into my arms fast as I could, and sprinted straight for Itachi's room.

"Itachi-san?" After waiting a minute or two, I cautiously pushed open the door. "Itachi-s…"

He appeared to be asleep. He was lying with a book across his nose, so I couldn't really tell if his eyes were open or not.

Steeling myself, I tapped him gently on the shoulder. The typical Sharingan swirl of red and black stared me in the face in an instant, his hand already grabbing my arm in an iron grip. I twitched at the feel of his nails digging in to my skin.

"Azu-san…" he greeted me. "What did you want?"

Now was the time to be bold. "Itachi-san, Sasori-san needs his puppet scrolls recopied by 6:00 p.m. tonight. He wanted me to do it, but, well, you know…" I saw his eyes flick to my hand. I continued, "Could you help me do them? He seems to need them really urgently." I figured since he had the Sharingan, it would be a piece of cake.

Oddly enough, without asking any questions, he took the scrolls out of my arms. "Of course, Azu-san. But I need a favor…"

Itachi is so polite that it freaks me out a lot of the time. I practically gasped, "Of course, anything you want, Itachi-san."

He stared pointedly at two cloth-wrapped somethings leaning against his wall. "Those are Kisame's Samehada and Hidan-san's scythe. They need to be sharpened. I was going to drop them off with Tobi, but since you're here, you do it. The crystal to sharpen it is with Kakuzu."

Some minutes later, I was at Kakuzu's room. I knocked loudly, three times. Kakuzu opened the door looking as grumpy as his expressionless face would allow. "What, little brat?" he asked.

I explained. Kakuzu gave me a non-blinking stare. "I'll give you the crystal if you go to town tonight and go get the money from the Waterfall ninjas that are gonna be there tonight." Scribbling something in his room, he passed me a piece of paper with time and place. I was screwed if the time was off.

Eesh. Red-light district bar was the place, time was around… 10:00 p.m.

Could I make it?

No, did I have a choice? Yeah, didn't think so…

I was soon running all the way back across the Akatsuki headquarters to Deidara's room. I burst in to his room without knocking. He was sprawled across the bed looking like death.

As hurried as I was, I stopped to stare at him. "What chewed you up and threw you back up?" I asked.

Deidara answered blankly, "Leader-sama. He is such a party-pooper. The old geezer never gets drunk, and apparently he expects us to be the same way." Brushing blonde hair out of his eyes, he said, "And I got the worst of it. He didn't blame Kisame, or that zealot, or that…" He waved his hand around. "You know, the idiot."

I felt momentarily sorry for Tobi. At least Sasori acknowledged me as his pupil. Was Tobi so bad? He might be hyperactive, but Deidara could be too… Deidara didn't even like saying his name.

"Deidara, I'm so sorry." I paused, and added, "Hug?"

Deidara held out his hands. I hugged him. "Aw, there. I feel better already," laughed Deidara. "How did I ever deal when you weren't here?"

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways… I need to go in to town again tonight. Could you take me, Dei-san?"

"I'm too tired," he groaned. I wanted to kick him. Come on, he obviously wasn't physically hurt or anything.

"Dei, you idiot, I really REALLY need to go there, okay???"

Sticking his hand in a bag next to his bed without opening his eyes, he grabbed something and gave it to me. "Use it to summon my bird. It'll take you there." There was a momentary flash of blue as he opened his eyes. "You do know how to pilot, don't you?"

"Not really," I gulped.

He waved his hand. "You'll figure it out. And Azu-san? While you're there, do me a favor. Get me some headache medicine."

Several hours later

I arrived in town staggering and clutching my stomach. Deidara's bird had a _viscous_ temperament. It had taken me hours to even get it there, and now it was almost 10:00. Straightening myself up, I hurried towards the Red-light district's most infamous bar.

I found the Waterfall ninjas easily enough, considering they were scowling and glaring at me.

"What…?" One of them croaked. "A little girl, hm?"

"I'm not here to bandy words," I said, giving them a crooked smile. "All I need is the money."

"You little spy, how'd you know we were supposed to meet Kakuzu-san here tonight?" leered one of the six.

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe because he told me himself not a day ago?"

They stared at me as one. "What are you, his girlfriend or something?"

"No," I growled. "I'm a member of the same organization as he's in."

It didn't look like I was going to get this done anytime soon. They refused to give in. But Kakuzu-san had said he wanted the money, so I needed to get it. "Don't make me fight your for this," I warned. "Come on, be reasonable."

They simply smirked.

I had no choice at all. I didn't even enjoy fighting.

The liquid, burning hot stream of melted steel sneaking up behind them must have been a surprise. My chakra ran through it at a super-speeded rate, burning the metal in to a state of extreme heat. The steel formed itself in to super-strong cables, yanking four of the six from behind and tying them instantly to the wall. The faster two both cursed and slid in to the ground with some earth jutsu.

"Not gonna do any good," I muttered, sensing them immediately beneath me. I wasn't exactly an amateur at this. The metal particles in the sand beneath me became glowing coals of fire, forcing the two out of the ground. The first circled around me, the second launching a frontal attack.

Sasori's training had paid off. He was fast, but my reactions were faster than lightning. I took him by surprise, whipped behind him, took him down with an easy "thonk" to the head.

Shoot, I hadn't noticed that one of the four I'd managed to trap had dug his way out. I needed more space without losing sight of the money. Hitting the floor hard with my foot, I gained enough speed to burst in to the air through the weak roof. I hated to be flashy…

The stream of liquid-like fire that came pouring out through my mouth hit one of the two ninjas in an instant. A water jutsu was effective enough to protect the two of them…

But that couldn't stop the metal, shrapnel-like sharpened kunai knives at all. They sliced clear through the water. They had been hidden in the bright fire. As I landed on another roof nearby, one of the ninja fell with a leg muscle sliced clear through while the other launched a furious attack of flying rock columns at me.

My chakra shooting through the night air like a web, I slowed down the attack effectively enough, since the rocks contained bits of metals. I hopped on top of one of the still flying rock columns, and jumped from one still-moving rock to the other.

A stream of smoke left behind as my feet moved so fast that it burned the rock; and I felt adrenaline pumping through my veins. I shot off six or twelve shots of phoenix fire, bombing the poor guy and distracting him with the smoke and heat. I knew to outsiders I would look like I was flickering.

_As I showed my doubt, Sasori waved my off. "You will be the fastest student I have had in a long time…" he said. "And the first move I will teach you will help you move so fast that you will match the lightning in a storm for its flickering movement…"_

It had sounded so impossible. It wasn't.

The crack as my foot hit the side of the Waterfall's ninja head resounded like a shot. His neck whipped to the side, but… shit, he'd managed to dodge it a little bit. My leg still in the air, he grabbed my ankle and threw me hard in to the air.

I did a triple flip in the air, managed to avoid the roof overhead and landed smoothly in front of him. Crouching low, I sniped at his ankles with my double-blade sword, slashing red lines in the air. Normally I would hold it double handed, but, well… you know. I didn't slice all the way through. He was kneeling over, but managed to aim a spin-kick at me, hoping to hit my knees. Jumping up, I hit him hard in the top of the head with a flying front-kick, and he went down hard. I landed on his chest and winced as I heard the crack. I hit him nicely in the head, hard. At last I'd gotten rid of him.

I found the other ninjas one by one, and knocked them all out. The money was still there. Grabbing it smoothly, I flickered out of the bar fast as I could.

The whole thing had only taken five minutes.

Later, trembling with the tiredness that comes after fighting, I bought Deidara's medicine for him. The quiet of the store was so different from the loudness of the fight before. I felt the familiar burning sensation in my legs.

To make a long story short, I managed to get the bird back, after too long of a time. I got the medicine to Deidara, gave the money to Kakuzu. He gave me the crystal. I spend the next few hours polishing and grinding away carefully at the Samehada and the scythe as quickly as I could. However, these weapons required a lot of care. The Samehada was the trickiest, requiring extreme caution to hold and work with.

I dropped off the weapons at their appropriate places, and then returned to Itachis' room. I knocked, and Itachi let me in. Blinking at me for a short moment, he handed the scrolls to me without a word. I let out a sigh of relief. I had them at last.

I gently opened one up, and gave a sigh of relief. It looked properly copied.


End file.
